David Kawai was inspired to start making only the tiniest of cranes after deciding he wanted to see whether there was a limit to how small they could go.

‘I was inspired to fold the smallest one I could because I enjoy challenging myself in general,’ David tells Metro.co.uk.

While the only piece of origami David can make is a crane, he’s a total expert at it.

(Picture: Instagram/@ teenytinyorigami)

He said: ‘The only origami I can do is the crane. I haven’t really been inspired to try anything else.’

David recently made a crane no bigger than the little knob of a lego piece, which his wife, Alison went on to share to Twitter, where it received 32,000 retweets and 113,000 likes.

‘I’ve since folded about a dozen,’ says David.

‘Which should technically be about the same size. The piece of paper I start with is always about the same, but how much the paper tears or softens during the folding process can influence the size of the crane in the end.

‘I haven’t made any attempt to fold a smaller one, nor was I trying to break any records with the first one I did. I had no idea people would be this impressed.’

David adds that while he’s good at folding cranes, he finds it ‘hard to say’ as to whether he’s good at origami in general.

He told us: ‘A crane is probably the most iconic example of origami, but there are many more complicated origami animals and things that I have no clue how to fold. I looked it up.

‘There are some true origami masters out there, and I don’t consider myself to be one of them!

‘I do, however, after all of this internet reaction to my tiny cranes, consider myself better than most at making cranes from a starting square sheet of about 5mm by 5mm.

(Picture: Instagram/@ teenytinyorigami)

‘I guess I got good at it by practicing it, which is easy because I enjoy it.

‘It’s meditative, relaxing and satisfying. I fold cranes to procrastinate, I fold receipts and napkins into cranes at restaurants, I fold cranes while watching baseball.’

David says that his favourite crane to date is obviously the one that sent him viral – though it was so small that it quickly got ruined after he attempted to apply some gloss to it for keepsake.

‘I’m a bit sad that the original crane is dead, but I mean, that’s how it goes,’ says David.

(Picture: Instagram/@ teenytinyorigami)

‘Half the time I try to make a crane this small it fails because the paper gets weak or the folds are not as precise as they should be or my dexterity just isn’t there.

‘I can fold a tiny crane in about 45 minutes if I’m perfect, but often it just doesn’t come together and i have to abandon it after 20-30 minutes of initial folding.

In regards to his viral success, which occurred after his wife, Alison, posted a photo of his work to her Twitter account, David says the experience has been somewhat ‘interesting’.

He said: ‘I’m not much of a Twitter presence, but my wife Alison tweets a lot because of her work. So, for this to be my wife’s tweet, and for it to be about some cute thing I did, it’s been fun for both of us.’

(Picture: Instagram/@teenytinyorigami)

Alison tells Metro.co.uk that while she loves what David does, she hasn’t helped him with his origami at all.

‘I couldn’t even begin to try,’ she said.

‘He needs no help. A few days ago, I thought OK, I’ll give this a try, I can do it. And I hit about Step three or four when I just gave up. The complexity of it at such a small scale was pretty much impossible for me.’

But she says watching him work is fun enough – and she’s just proud of what he’s doing.

She said: ‘He’s very patient and silent throughout it. I’m really proud of him because he’s always been someone with infinite patience and he likes these kinds of quirky activities and it’s super cool to see him noticed for it.

(Picture: Instagram/@teenytinyorigami)

‘He’ll spend like, half an hour to an hour on one crane and then say screw it because something went wrong and then he’ll start all over again. It actually requires quite a bit of endurance.’

Alison says she is ‘totally supportive’ of David’s origami hobby, though she admits the reaction to her tweet was ‘weird’, as some people interpreted her tweet calling him ‘ridiculous’ as her not being supportive of her husband.

Alison strongly disputes that, saying: ‘What he does is awesome. Out of the thousands and thousands of people who saw it, I think there was only one person who said they could make a crane just as small, and attached a pic to prove it. It’s more like an art, almost.’